Best of the Bears: Stadium bill stalls in Springfield
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What caused the stadium bill to stall in Springfield?
Is the plan to pass the bill out of the Senate tonight? And have you talked to? I've talked to Representative Buckner. He is in support of this concept. Obviously, he has to get the support of the House in order to pass the bill. Have you gotten a roll call in the Senate? Can you get this out of the Senate? I'm confident we'll pass the bill.
Mully and Hall, 1-0-4-3 the score. That is State Senator Bill Cunningham. And he should be confident they did pass the bill. Yeah, he was. About 3.30 in the morning.
Yeah, this morning. Earlier this morning.
And the House passed on bringing it to the floor at about 4.30 and then adjourned. While everyone slept. Well, not all of them.
Not all of us.
Not our next guest. Not Paris Schutz. You can't get him to sleep, for God's sake. The man's been up for several days. I hope he's had enough Red Bull. And Paris joins us on the Plumbers 911 hotline. Plumbing emergency. Call 1-833-PLUM-911. Local 130 Plumbers. Get the job done right the first time. Paris, thanks a ton for getting up with us.
How do lawmakers view the Bears' approach to the stadium deal?
We appreciate it.
Hey, Molly, it's great to be with you guys. I got my coffee right here, so I'm good for the next couple hours.
So appreciate you joining us and the work that you did last night, Yeoman's effort. Now, as a reporter, Paris, when you wake up this morning, obviously we'll get to maybe what happened and how everything unfolded, but I would imagine your first question, your first priority is what's next? What now? What is the next phase of this story?
Well, I think Chairman George McCaskey and CEO Kevin Warren are probably asking that question, too, because this is not what they had hoped would happen out of this weekend. By the way, it wasn't lost on lawmakers that neither of those two were in the state capitol in Springfield this weekend. And, you know, Jerry Reinsdorf has made a habit of going down there and befriending his legislators. So it was it was a different approach by the Bears. But, you know, my takeaway right now is it's more wait and see for the bears. And we're going on three years now. Right. And do the bears really want to now wait and see what the House is going to do? And then because it passed past midnight, this legislation cannot go into effect until July of twenty twenty seven.
So are they willing to start their project and wait a year and now negotiate this new stadium authority with either Arlington Heights or potentially, although I think it's unlikely, the city of Chicago when they have that deal in Hammond ready to go, basically. So, I mean, and the question now is what's next for the Bears? Was this a bluff? And we're going to find that out over the next few days. If they choose not to go to Hammond, And and they still they're still wishy washy on what their priority is. Then I think they lose a lot of their leverage here in Illinois. And some of these Chicago lawmakers that banked on Indiana being a bluff will be proven right.
Yeah, this is one of these deals where they let it go to the last minute, they couldn't get it over the finish line, and then they passed a different bill, which was hastily written, And then the House said they wouldn't even look at it because they didn't have time to go over it, etc. I'm just wondering, why did it take so long to realize that the megaprojects bill wasn't going to pass? And do you believe that the Bears stadium was being used as a way to get a megaprojects bill done?
Yeah, I mean, I think that it was kind of stunning when Senator Cunningham emerged at 10.30 on, what was that, Saturday night, saying we just don't have the votes. So I think it took so long because they really tried to get the votes on that.
What are the implications of the Bears' decision to consider Indiana?
And I think you guys mentioned earlier, and it's absolutely true, it really was some of the Chicago Democratic lawmakers that really gummed up the works here. And I go back about two months when um state and chicago teachers union president stacy davis gates got involved wrote a letter to the legislative leaders whipped up people saying do not support this bill it's going to be bad for property taxpayers and it's going to deprive money of education that's her view then mayor brandon johnson who had sat out of this whole thing for a year it was out of his hands okay after the chicago gambit fell through
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What caused the stadium bill to stall in Springfield?
0:03–1:15
2
How do lawmakers view the Bears' approach to the stadium deal?
1:15–4:11
3
What are the implications of the Bears' decision to consider Indiana?
4:11–7:21
4
What are the potential next steps for the Bears after the bill's failure?
7:21–9:43
5
How do political dynamics affect the Bears' stadium negotiations?
9:43–12:08
6
What role does public opinion play in the Bears' stadium plans?
12:08–14:23
7
What alternative stadium locations are being discussed?
14:23–16:49
8
How might the Bears' future decisions impact Chicago's sports landscape?
16:49–48:54
Speakers
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